The pros and cons of opinions

I'm putting this in "politics" because it undoubtably is political, sooner than later.

There's an old saying "opinions are like (insert your own body part), everybody has one". True, we all have opinions. Expressing them is something else.
In many countries - societies - expressing one's opinion may get you arrested, shot, simply disappeared, or possibly stoned to death. I'll disregard these for the moment.
In the "free world" as we like to call it, freedom of expression is one of the basic tenants, and is expressing one's opinion not "freedom of expression'? But are we free to do so? Should we be?
[edit], with those older members of society dismissing the opinions of the younger elements as "they'll learn when they grow up", or some such nonsense.
I had a grandfather who would say "if you want my opinion" (nobody did, but he voiced it anyway), but in fact he wasn't voicing an opinion, he was dictating instruction. He was horribly offended when others didn't just accept his position as gospel, as his was obviously the superior intellect (in his opinion). We've all encountered the type.
If one where to say "black people are less intelligent than whites", that expression of opinion would today be unacceptable by society, yet 60 years ago it would be met with nods of approval. "Homosexuality is a disease" - you're in trouble for that one, yet not long ago it was accepted as common fact, you didn't dare say otherwise.
So we're not really free to express all our opinions, are we?

And what happens when we do? Well, let's examine a current hot topic. Let's say you believe, in your opinion, that abortion is a crime. You listen to a potential political candidate, and they share your opinion. So you vote for them, and so do others, and they get elected, and eventually it isn't an opinion any more, it's a law. But in doing so, you have circumvented the rights of those who held a dissenting opinion.
See what I mean about becoming political? It always does.

So when I hear someone say "I'm only voicing my opinion", I take that with a grain of salt.
Opinions are very dangerous things. In my opinion.

 

The opposite of your examples are an opinion too. Please acknowledge that.

 

Thank you for your opinion.

 

If you won't acknowledge the truth, nothing you say can be believed.

 

Like I said, we've all encountered the type. Thank you for providing the example.

 

What I meant was that Pussycat made several examples, one of which was that thinking homosexuality is a disease is an opinion. I said the opposite is an opinion too, thinking homosexuality is not a disease. They are both opinions and she refused to acknowledge that. All of her examples were opinions and the reverse of those opinions are opinions too. She only mentioned one side in order to engender a favorable response.

 

Actually the scientific data says otherwise.

The Pro-Life argument is that since potentially the fetus will become a human being without intervention to stop it, in all practical terms it is a human being. Not that at a specific instant in time, it is incapable of breathing on its own. So it is not the Pro-Life people forcing it to become life, its the Pro-Choice people actively trying to stop it from becoming alive.

 

There has been extensive testing on IQ. The results were that on average (not by individuals) the IQ of Blacks were below the average of 100. Further testing showed that the average IQ of Blacks in the U.S. were higher than the average IQ of Blacks in Africa. These are averages of large populations, not by individual cases. Yes you can find a lot of Blacks with IQ's over 100, but there are a lot more Blacks with an IQ under 100, which brings the total average down.

There are a lot of Whites with an IQ under 100, and there are a lot of Whites with an IQ over 100, so if you cherry pick individual samples, you can find Blacks with a higher IQ than Whites. But averages show a better overall picture.

The psychologists know this is true, but are reluctant to publicly acknowledge it, because the minor difference in IQ doesn't vastly affect the individuals ability to perform in society and the social backlash that would accompany such a pronouncement would be very detrimental.

These tests also found that the average IQ of Asians are above 100. And the group with the highest average IQ were Hassidic Jews.

It takes a large variance in IQ to ensure a difference in performance. A small difference doesn't count for much. Also the value of a human being is not dependent on whether or not his or her IQ is above or below 100. Just some people can't accept that the findings are true.

 

Education has only a minor affect on IQ. Basically, you are born with your IQ. Environmental factors only cause a small change. IQ roughly indicate how well, how complex, and how fast you can learn, not what you have learned.

 

You chose one specific case out of thousands. Not a very good argument.

 

Valid point, but that's not an "opinion". It's a known and proven fact.

This thread isn't about "abortion", we have others for that.

Let's try "in some people's opinion, drinking bleach will cure Covid." OK, they're entitled to that opinion if they want.
But they post a blog saying that in their opinion........and some not too intelligent parent out there says "hey, that's a good idea"........and feeds it to their offspring? Are they guilty of murder? Should the originator of the "opinion" be guilty of (fill in the blank)???

What's the opinions on that?